Streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase nanocomplex-amplified microfluidics immunoassays for simultaneous detection of inflammatory biomarkers

Simultaneous, sensitive and quantitative detection of biomarkers in infectious disease is crucial for guiding antimicrobial treatment and predicting prognosis. This work reported an ultrasensitive and quantitative microfluidic immunoassay combined with the streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase (SA-B-HRP) nanocomplex-signal amplification system (MIS) to detect two inflammatory biomarkers, procalcitonin (PCT, for discriminating bacterial infections from nonbacterial infections) and interleukin-6 (IL-6, for monitoring the kinetics of infectious disease) simultaneously. The amplification system was based on the one step self-assembly of SA and B-HRP to form the SA-B-HRP nanocomplex, which effectively amplified the chemiluminescent signals. The linear ranges for PCT and IL-6 detections by MIS were 250–1.28 × 105 pg mL−1 and 5–1280 pg mL−1, and the limit of detection (LOD) were 48.9 pg mL−1 and 1.0 pg mL−1, respectively, both of which were significantly improved compared with microfluidic immunoassays without amplification system (MI). More importantly, PCT and IL-6 in human serum could be simultaneously detected in the same run by MIS, which could greatly improve the detection efficiency and reduce the cost. Given the advantages of high sensitivity, multiplex and quantitative detection, MIS could be potentially applied for detection of biomarkers at low concentration in clinical diagnosis. [Display omitted] •The SA-B-HRP nanocomplex is an effective signal amplification system in MIS.•MIS has been developed for detection of PCT and IL-6 simultaneously.•The LOD for PCT and IL-6 by MIS are 48.9 pg mL−1 and 1.0 pg mL−1, respectively.•MIS has successfully detected PCT and IL-6 simultaneously in serum samples.